My passions that fuel my love for fantasy

This is an unusual post for me; it has been a while since I posted and it was mostly because I was reflecting on this post. I am note sure why it was such a tall order to get through this process but I feel that this post contains an important message: do not beat yourself up if you have passions that appear to distract you from your “main” interest.

Recently, it has been challenging for me to only focus on fantasy; I find my attention diverted to philosophy (at least in the last weeks) and my interest to reconnect with this topic.

And when I go on these rabbit holes, I tend to put reading fantasy aside (well, anything really); it is harder to dedicate myself to this practice and I feel guilty about it.

We live in a world where your online presence needs to be defined by niching down. The more you are specific, the more likely your corner of the internet (smaller or bigger) will be successful. And the reality is that this is a very constricting approach for me, and it has always been (one of the reasons I feel I “failed” at blogging before). I have a lot of interests and, as I mentioned before, it makes me feel very uncomfortable, I get angry at myself, when I explore non-fantasy centric topics.

And yet, I have recently allowed myself to embrace this part of me; quite frankly, I needed others to say it to me; and the video essay by Robin Waldun (here) on pursuing multiple interests just liberated me. As I said, I have been circling this content for a long while but I needed someone else saying it out loud and pursuing it. The key takeaway from this video, for me, is the ability to explore.

I have been reflecting on this topic for a while now - and, in fact, I already felt liberated when I first drafted the first version of this post (before watching the video by Robin Waldun that is); it was the post that enabled me to connect a few dots. The video just added depth to my intuition.

So what are the things that distract me from my love for fantasy? Well, the reality is that these are all topics that add content to my love for fantasy; they are instrumental to make me appreciate my fantasy reading significantly more. I love when I understand what historical event inspired a series; I find myself more engaged in stories when I feel that there is a philosophical point being made in the story. The truth is that the reading experience, for me, becomes more engaging when I understand the deeper meaning or influence of a story.

So what are the additional elements that I resumed studying? History (and there are plenty of fantasy stories linked to historical events, for example, A promise of blood by Brian McClellan is rooted in the French Revolution, from the very first sentences; not to mention A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin inspire by the War of the Roses!); philosophy (and while this is better suited for sci-fi, there are many books that are heavily inspired by or borrow from philosophical content, such as The Wheel of Time; or theology in Elantris); literature (duh, it goes without saying but let’s not forget that both Tolkien and Lewis wrote their masterpieces as they were teaching literature); art (while it might be less intuitive, let’s remember that Mark Lawrence was inspired to write Red Sister from a painting), mythology (which not only allows for successful retellings, but it brings one of my favorite tropes in fantasy, gods meddling in human affairs). In general, humanities.

So why do I feel passionate about these topics? Well, they have informed my young adulthood and I am missing the deeper knowledge on many areas of these disciplines. I want to be able to continue the exploration, maybe sharing a few of the nuggets I find online; if I find a few YouTubers that have great content (and there are!), I will share in case you have the same interests.

If there are books that might be interesting, I will share those too. If I find courses (or course programs) that could be interesting, I will share them. I truly find myself struggling when I am not able to share this type of content.

It is more about sharing this passion rather than being an expert; it is all about being able to be self-taught (and it is an area that I feel frustratingly poor at).

Mostly, this process taught me that I do not need to be confined to a topic to feel comfortable; if one is a person in need of pursing multiple disciplines, topics, areas of life, do not restrict yourself. Feel free to pursue all these interests, because they are clearly what defines you as an individual. Pursue all passions that appeal to you!

With the excitement dialed up to 9000, I am ready to embrace the diversity of interests and hope to share deeper analysis of books and series with you!

Let me know in the comments below if you have experienced similar pursuits, both in the sense of multiple interests at the same time or the humanities specifically! Please feel free to share your experience down below!